


Up in the Stars

by ohjustdisarmalready



Series: And I 'verse [6]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Sibling Bonding, a quiet night
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 02:31:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13672419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohjustdisarmalready/pseuds/ohjustdisarmalready
Summary: Prompt: "They didn't deserve you." And I Will?





	Up in the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Posting this prompt from tumblr. This is sometime when Lup and Taako are the equivalent of teens on the Homeworld.

Lup huddles closer to the campfire, trying to get all the warmth she can without catching fire herself. Taako glances sidelong at her, but not seeing any danger, turns his eyes back to the stars.

“What are you thinking?” she asks him, quietly. She needs something to lull her into safety. They’re too new to this caravan, she’s too tense to meditate.

“Thinkin’ ‘bout home,” Taako says. “Stars’re different there.”

He must be feeling mushy. Lup leans on him for warmth and tries to get comfortable. Fall came early this year; they’ll have to head south soon.

“What’re the stars like?” she asks, burying her head in her brother’s shoulder. He brings her in under his cloak-turned-blanket.

“They move,” he tells her. “Not like they move here, they dance. Everything there is beautiful. They would accept nothing less.”

She moves his arm around her so she doesn’t feel like she’ll slide right off.

“They sound like a bunch of bitches,” she says. She can practically hear Taako’s raised brow.

“Their wisdom and glory is unmatched,” he says. He tightens his arm around her. “It’s different here, is all. Even without the soul. It’s, it’s–warmer.”

Lup shivers pointedly and Taako squeezes her.

“You know what I mean. If I weren’t beautiful at home, I’d be decommissioned. I know the one who’d be tasked with it, and they’d go to work the next day and start training my replacement,” Taako says, upsettingly. Everything Lup hears about Taako’s ‘home’ makes her want to live forever so she can make sure he isn’t taken back there. Fuck those guys. She wraps her arm around Taako’s waist. It twists her shoulder awkwardly, but it’s much more comfortable for the rest of her.

“I feel like,” Taako starts, and hesitates.

Lup stays absolutely still, barely breathing for fear of discouraging a fledgling thought. Meditation is the last thing on her mind.

“I feel like, here, I’m not–I’m not here to look pretty when guests are over. I’m not–that’s not what I meant. I feel like, uh,” he huffs in frustration, “I think if I didn’t fit well, if I, if I made a mistake or something, I feel like you’d still keep me.”

She hides her face in his shoulder and takes a deep breath against the fury and pity and guilt and  _wrath_ that could engulf her. Taako feels it and backtracks.

“Not that you would! Um, or, not that you–wouldn’t! I’m, I’m sure you would, you would do the right thing? If, I’m, I’m not saying this right, I’m sorry, just, never mind!” He retracts his arm a single half-inch, tenses, goes still and silent and pliant. It’s what she hates most, the pliancy. She doesn’t know what he needs and he can’t tell her.

She turns and gives him a hug, because she’s pretty sure he’d never had one before her and that’s a lot of hugs to make up for. She needs one, anyhow.

“I’m not giving you back,” she growls. He sort of chuckles like he’s not sure if she’s joking. “They didn’t deserve you when they had you and now they don’t anymore. Finders keepers.”

“That’s, uh, that’s sure an illegal thought,” he says. “That you just said there, out loud, that’s now out there in the world. I–you’re, uh, you’re joking, right? You can’t, you can’t just steal me. That’s like…thievery? You can’t do that?”

“Fuckin’ watch me,” she says. “I’m not sending you back there. Once I figure this out we’ll find a way to figure out what you want, but you’re not going back out there. They want you back, they’ll have to go through me.”

Taako gets on the hugging train and holds on properly, laughing a little bit.

“Sure, Lup,” he says. “In the  _incredibly_  unlikely event that you ever meet them, I’m sure they’ll be quaking in their boots.”

She smiles and sits back, keeping close for warmth and comfort. He’s joking now, but she’s young and smart and absolutely willing to burn Taako’s museum home to the ground. She’ll find a way.

“Cat who got the cream,” Taako teases her upon seeing her face, but he doesn’t discourage her. He believes she’ll get over wanting him to be free, wanting to protect him. Like she’ll just forget to love her brother one day. He brushes her bangs out of her eyes–they both need haircuts.

“You can go ahead and rest, I’ll get watch. You need any more blanket?” he re-wraps his cloak around them, tight to ward out the chill. It’s not even dangerously cold, just enough to keep her from getting comfortable.

“I’m good. Tell me Jeffandrew’s weaknesses, it’ll be like a lullaby,” she says. He snorts.

“How about I talk about literally anything at all interesting instead?” he asks.

Bundled up and getting drowsy, Lup nods.

“I think it would be interesting,” she says, just to make it clear. She will be getting answers on that at some point.

Taako laughs. “Fascinating stuff, I’m sure. How about I tell you more about the stars?”

She nods against him. Stars are cool. Probably more appropriate bedtime talk than gory, righteous vengeance.

Taako’s voice is soft and even as he looks at the stars he shares with Lup. He thinks for a moment, and begins.

“The stars at home tell stories. One of my earliest memories is watching them perform the story of the mockingbird…”

**Author's Note:**

> What good kids. Let me know what you think, and feel free to hit me up with a prompt if you'd like! No guarantees, but I take most of them eventually.


End file.
